Hudhud

Hudhud is an Ifugao long tale which is chanted only on three important occasions: on harvest time, when it is sung to break the monotony of a task; secondly, when someone dies of natural death; and, lastly, during a wake held in the reburial of the dead or the bogwa.

The chant is performed by a munhaw-e--often an elderly woman--who should be familiar with the different variants of the narratives. The munhaw-e is backed-up by the mun-hudhud or mun-abbuy who answers only in recurring phrases as cued by the munhaw-e. There are about two hundred narratives grouped into forty episodes which may take three to four days to finish.

On March 18, 2001, Hudhud chants were conferred by UNESCO the title of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" along with 18 other cultural spaces and forms of expression in the world.